Yellowknife (Feb 06/04) - Come fall, the Healthy Baby Club in Yellowknife is hoping to target high school students by letting them know help is out there if pregnancy occurs.

Janine Loifie has been in the program for four years. - Colleen Moore/NNSL photo

Modena Spears, program co-ordinator, said over the past nine years the club has experienced a real mix of women, including mothers and mothers-to-be.

However, the number of teenagers participating is lacking, said Spears. They are often considered the high-risk group that can use the extra support.

"We need more of the young people, the teenagers," she said.

"They are really missing out on what we offer. I would like to have more access to those women."

The program, which falls under the domain of the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program, is funded by Health Canada. It's designed to promote healthy pregnancies and operates out of the Centre for Northern Families.

"The women get to have one-on-one pre-natal and post-natal support," said Spears.

A public health nurse also visits regularly to educate the women and give individual check-ups.

Scraping by

While a chunk of the $160,000 of federal funding provided goes towards Spears' salary, wages for two peer support workers and a childcare worker, some of it also goes towards cooking classes, transportation and other supplies required. All those costs mean they are just scraping by each year, she said.

Spears, who has a background in nursing and midwifery, said young women learn about proper nutrition, healthy cooking, good parenting skills, labour-related issues and breastfeeding -- which are all useful to women who are expecting and those who already have children.

Spears also volunteers herself as labour support to women who may not have somebody to be with them during the birth.

"We are very individually client-based," she said.

"The women seem to feel very comfortable here."

Heather Adjun was only 17 when she got pregnant with her first child.

She heard about the Healthy Baby Club and signed up, not sure what to expect.

"I didn't even know how to bathe my own child," she said.

Now, almost six years later, Adjun is the proud mother of three and still a part of the program.

Adjun said she continues to learn new things about being a mother, and has also taken on a peer support worker position.

"It's amazing how you can learn to do so much with so little," she said. "Throughout all of the years, everything has helped me be the mother I am today."

Janine Loifie is also a peer support worker in the program, but first joined the club four years ago as a young teenager pregnant with her second child.

Loifie said she learned a lot about nutrition, cigarette smoking and breast feeding. Since her youngest child is over the age of one now, she is focusing her attention on peer support.

"I really get to go into the books more," she said.

"It's more about me studying the work now."

Currently, there are 10 women signed up in the pre-natal program and 12 in the post-natal.

Spears said the numbers are always fluctuating. Some women come from outside communities and only join the program for the short time while they are visiting the city.